The two questions were unrelated.

The two answers weren’t.

Mike Yeo was first asked Friday about Vladimir Tarasenko. The Blues coach, you probably have heard by now, played the Blues star a season low in shifts and ice time in Thursday’s victory over Vegas. Said Yeo, “There’s no strategy. I think you can make a story of it if you want. The bottom line is, you can look at it how you want to look at it, what he wasn’t doing or what other guys were doing. I don’t think it’s any different from what we talked about with (Kyle Brodziak) and (Scottie Upshall) earning some extra ice time. … There were some guys last game that were rolling really well and through the course of the game, as a coach, you have to do what you think is right to get the win.”

OK, so maybe Dmitrij Jaskin and Magnus Paajarvi were rolling really well. But the reality was this — in a tight game against a first place team, Yeo didn’t go to Tarasenko, instead keeping him on the bench for all but 3:56 in the third period.

Which leads us to the second question.

Later on, Yeo was asked about the difficulties of keeping a team together and afloat during the long, long season.

“That is,” Yeo said authoritatively, “the ultimate challenge. That’s what I really believe separates the top teams from the rest of the pack. It’s not necessarily an individual player, it’s not necessarily the skill that you have in your lineup. It’s the mental toughness you have to stay with it, day in, day out. To prepare and go into it with the urgency that you need. Obviously there are good players on every team you’re going to play against. You look across, there are great players and star players. And ultimately what makes you successful in this league is how you play as a team, how prepared you are as a team.”

A strong answer from Yeo. A passionate answer. And inadvertently or not, I saw it as a glimpse into the Tarasenko situation. Every team has a star, but stars alone don’t make you win. (Tarasenko practiced Friday but didn’t speak to reporters.)

We won’t know why Tarasenko didn’t play much in the third. Maybe there was a rift with Yeo. Maybe Tarasenko is just frustrated that his shots aren’t going in lately, and it’s affecting his attitude. Maybe, who knows, Jaskin and Paajarvi were just playing at a high level that night.

But this indeed is a grueling grind of a season, and Yeo is setting precedents with every single player on this team.

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Also, an old basketball coach once told me something that pertains to hockey, too. In the modern age, players are megastar millionaires, and executives, agents and the players themselves all have stronger voices than ever before. The coach’s authority isn’t what it always was. But — a currency the coach does still have is minutes. The players can’t decide who plays. And the coach can send messages through minute delegation, and do so a lot stronger than just barking at a guy at practice, like in an older era.

So Yeo made a statement with Tarasenko’s 3:56 in the third period against Vegas. Everyone saw it — Tarasenko, his teammates, the fans, the media.

Hopefully for the Blues, this won’t be a story when they return to St. Louis. The club plays at the Flyers and Capitals, and you know what? The Blues have so many other issues that hopefully this one can get ironed out, so they can work on other ones. Such as, the power play. Or, really, scoring goals in general.

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Of course, yes, a lot of that goes hand-in-hand with Tarasenko’s performances. But the Blues are among the best teams in the conference, yet their goals-per-game average is just average — 17th in the league. An that’s for the whole season. They haven’t scored more than three goals in a game since Dec. 9.

Jaden Schwartz’s injury indisputably and conspicuously hurts St. Louis.

Same with the lack of overall scoring by Alexander Steen and Paul Stastny – who, funnily enough, were the two goal-scorers in the 2-1 win over Vegas.

So Yeo has continue to cook up different line recipes.

“It’s all part of Yeo’s philosophy,” goalie Jake Allen said, “and we’ve got a lot of good guys to play together. Everybody is so skilled nowadays, you can play with anyone — unless you put me at forward.”

But it’s not if anyone can simply play with anyone — it’s about maximizing the lines, squeezing the most out of them. And the cook Yeo is still in the kitchen (though, at least, better at it than Mike Kitchen). The one line that’s been particularly potent has been that of Steen, Brodziak and Patrik Berglund.

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“There’s no question that we’re seeing that with those guys — every guy knows what their intentions are, with and without the puck,” Yeo said. “And because of that, they play faster. They’re all on the same page, they’re reading off each other extremely well. The results have been there offensively, and they’ve been solid defensively. You talk about bringing momentum — and getting your team into their game — that’s been doing that.”

That line brought momentum. As did goalie Carter Hutton. So the Blues loaded up their smelly hockey bags with said momentum and headed to Philadelphia. The Blues are on a winning streak. They’re near the top of the conference. But they’ve got some issues. Yeo is navigating through them. It’s a long, long season, and momentum comes and goes. But another thing that is currency in hockey (though it might sound hokey)? Teamwork.